Last night, I restored the New Year's Eve Edition of my New Year's resolutions. And today, I've upgraded it to Destination '23: Neanderthal Edition.

Before the change, I thought all that I needed to do is what I championed from the beginning. However, I yearn to slam into the new year with barbarian rage as I cleave the months ahead!

"It's easy to reset," so I thought, "just mark out Facebook and gear down to pick up the slack and feel your bucket with win." But, no, I need MORE with LESS.

Give Me the Bible

Today, I find a fundamental shift: I want to dig into the Bible, not hit a checkmark and move into a commentary or a tome of theology. I want to reread the Scripture I've read. I feel like I just began Romans 1-8—I could spend the entire year studying it. Still, I want to hit those other texts, but not cram them into my morning timeslot.

Hard(ware) to Handle Now

From there, I chose to buy memory upgrades for both my Lenovo ideacentre and my Acer Nitro 5. Both systems have 8 GB; at $22 each, it is trivial to punch up their memory by 100%. I've decided to not rely so heavily on my shiny MacBook Pro workhorse. More of that in a bit. The machine I picked up on my arrival to Memphis is my Acer 5—I don't use it much anymore. It's a low-end gaming box that I have since tossed my kids' way. But, it's superior to the hardware on my Lenovo desktop (*ahem* of laptop hardware). But, I DO like its form factor! It reminds me of yesteryear when I ran my iMac G5. Now THAT was a beautiful rig! Who knows, I just might return to that if the house search settles down and I can restore classic computers.

THIS Lenovo is snappy running Linux Mint 21.1 with Cinnamon! Perhaps macOS animated tedium dulled my perception. I prefer an os to just move along with my fingers. I'm not looking for an airshow here, folks.

The other day, I picked up a 27" display for $10 after using a gift card. Long ago are the days I bought a 9" b/w monitor for AIM. My new display flips duty between Linux Mint and macOS. It's a little fuzzy for the Mac because that MacBook M1's resolution is ridiculous. Definitely not an OS that plays nicely with the Gen X'er.

Oh, and I tossed a box of micro-screwdrivers into the cart. My prior set broke on a project back in the country. I'll no longer be using the multipurpose tweezers!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

I've taken back control of my systems. I don't have one foot in the Apple ecosystem and the other in Google's. I closed both accounts then wiped and reinstalled my Mac. Look, at what point does my circular saw dictate anything in my life? When does my wood router tell me I must confirm with my phone that I am who I say I am? Then, why do these software tools demand so much? Has my drill ever talked to Lowe's to suggest to me a new bit? Has it gossiped with Walmart about those Mountain Dew Zero's I once loved so much?

It all reminds me of Facebook, that place that stole my friends' time and humanity. I don't know how we as a people have ceded so much to URLs like Google.com and Facebook.com. They plop down around the same 12 bucks as I do every year for their domain name.

We give far much too weight to monoliths—I'd rather sign up for my INTJBill.com world! And in my application, most of my best features are available offline.

I also closed my Garmin account. Once, it was my companion, plopped down in a cushy front row seat with a tub of popcorn as it tracked every curious step and every nuanced heartbeat. But, to what end? Do I gain value in any number that is posted? I know when I hit the mark; I know when I fail. And as injury has made step count nosedive, it doesn't have much remaining purpose in my life in a context of 0 social connections. It is just an expensive nightlight.

And in the greater context, I'm really in a good position to focus on resistance training.

FO4: "Rebuild, Renew"

What shall I do? In a world without iCloud and Google, what does it look like? It's a lot like how it once looked. I even flipped my browser user to Firefox—I'm ever reminded of that mid-2000s era when its use was so prevalent!

But this does not answer the question: this is about Destination '23: NE.

I retire the Software Standards:

1. Streaming Music Platform: Google Music, Bandcamp
2. Social Media: Facebook, Pinterest
3. Task Management: Google Calendar with Google Tasks
4. Email Provider: Gmail
5. Operating Systems: macOS; Android with Google integration
6. Cloud Storage: Google One
7. Website Template: my simple design

The only standard that remains is...

Hosting & CMS: NearlyFreeSpeech with Jekyll as a static site generator.

...and when I was on Facebook, I nearly gave that up in lieu of a GitHub Pro account with a Minimal-Mistakes fork! But, as it makes no sense to leave this big about hosting & CMS there all by itself, I'm clearing it off. I don't have a problem with the design of this site, but who knows, I might add something befitting of Technoir.

And it is with a heavy heart that I must share that the 365-day shot is over. In wiping my Mac, I did not consider the low priority pics! All 25 days of my facial hair evolution are forever lost! But the yeard continues.

And I wish I could continue my Cities Skylines build. This may seem insignificant, but I was laying out Erebor in parallel to Facebook, naming avenues after friends, creating parks after them—that sort of thing. Who would I have chosen to name the university after? Indeed, the events of the year were interwoven into the build. But, it too, like the 365 shots, was lost into the digital ether. Eh, I'm glad it did because I cheesed the game with a bit of insider trading. For story purposes, maybe I was carted off to prison as a disgraced mayor.